Palestinian Authority Special Forces were praised this week by an American general for becoming the founders of a new Arab country within Israel's current borders.

Addressing a battalion in Tulkarm that recently finished training in Jordan, US lt. General Keith Dayton said: "As I look at you, I couldn't be more proud of the fact that you stepped up to be the founders of a Palestinian state."

The United States plans to expand a program to bolster Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's security forces in the occupied West Bank, the general in charge of training and equipping them said Monday.

"We have plans to train at least three more battalions before this time next year," Lieutenant General Keith Dayton told Reuters. Each battalion has about 500 members.

"If it goes the way the administration has asked for, we will accelerate dramatically what we are doing here.

Over the past year, Israel had pardoned more than 250 Fatah terrorists implicated in the attacks in 2003 and 2004, and many of them were absorbed in PA security forces.

Now, Israeli intelligence sources say, dozens of these pardoned Fatah terrorists have returned to the fighting Israel.

Once trained by the U.S, the return of Fatah to terrorist activity against could place Israel on a collision course with Fatahs American military advisers.

This could create a nightmare scenario of American military personnel caught in the crossfire between Israeli troops and Fatah terrorists.

The American consulate in Jerusalem has so far not commented on the fact that Fatah security forces, known as the al-Aqsa Brigades, are defined by American law as a terrorist entity and possibly are being inadvertently aided by the U.S. military.

Good God. Why don't we just send the latest US weapons to the Taliban too.

Don't these idiots understand that these terrorists float back and forth between organizations.

They could be PA today, Fatah tomorrow, Al Queda next week and Taliban by Christmas day!

Interesting note. This Lt. General has been on active duty since 1970 and has NO combat tours. He is a member of the Counsel on Foreign Relations, but has NO medals and awards from combat, not even a Bronze Star!

Lieutenant General Keith W. Dayton, (b. 1949) United States Army, is currently the U.S. Security Coordinator for the Israel-Palestinian Authority in Tel Aviv, Israel. He has also served as the Director of the Iraq Survey Group, as a senior member of the Joint Staff, and as U.S. Defense Attache in the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia.

Gen. Dayton was commissioned as an artillery officer through the Reserve Officer Training Corps in 1970. Prior to his current assignment, he spent 37 years in a variety of command and staff assignments, most recently serving as the director of the Iraq Survey Group during Operation Iraqi Freedom and as Director of Strategy, Plans and Policy, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3, United States Army, before his current assignment as U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

He has written many technical articles over the course of his career, as well as was one of the co-authors of The Future of NATO: Facing an Unreliable Enemy in an Uncertain Environment, a study on the future of NATO published in 1991.

President Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, has asked Dayton, the American who has been overseeing the training of Mahmoud Abbas's police forces, to stay on for two more years. Dayton, whose three-year assignment was due to end, has agreed, diplomats said.

What do you mean “not even a Bronze Star?” I’d also point out that prior to WWII, Ike didn’t have any combat tours either, so that comment really doesn’t amount to a hill of beans. That said, I agree that we have no business equipping and training our enemies.

WTH marks this man as a traitor? He’s simply executing the assignment set before him. In any event, he’s training police/”security forces.” I don’t really know why military would be training police, but, in any event, I can’t see any training we are giving them doing anything to change their offensive or even defensive capabilities vis-a-vis the Israelis.

Over the past year, Israel had pardoned more than 250 Fatah terrorists implicated in the attacks in 2003 and 2004, and many of them were absorbed in PA security forces.

Now, Israeli intelligence sources say, dozens of these pardoned Fatah terrorists have returned to the fighting Israel. Once trained by the U.S, the return of Fatah to terrorist activity against could place Israel on a collision course with Fatahs American military advisers. This could create a nightmare scenario of American military personnel caught in the crossfire between Israeli troops and Fatah terrorists.

A real American would have resigned his commission before committing the crimes that Dayton has.

It is getting to the point where I dont know where allegiances and loyalties lie these days. Whom do you trust? In the civil war you couldnt even trust your relatives. I think that is where we are heading. Maybe I will just judge each man on his own merits without the religious/political labels.

Sorry, but I don't see any reason to attack Dayton who I believe undertook this mission under Bush when Condi was trying to get Olmert and Abbas together on a deal.

Fatah (secular, nationalist, socialist) special forces were butchered in Gaza by Hamas when Hamas threw Fatah out of Gaza.

Hamas is now threatening to take over the West Bank and these special forces that the Dayton is training in Jordan are to prevent Islamist Hamas (backed by Iran) from succeeding in overthrowing Abbas.

Unfortunately, Obama’s kiss-up-to-Muslims attitude and promise to lean on Israel led Abbas and the other Arab states to drop concessions agreed to with Bush and Clinton and demand a full Israeli pullback to the 1967 borders.

Yes, any Fatah personnel are suspect, but the Israelis will make sure they don't get any heavy weapons ever.

Well, I’m not talking about the American Jewish vote—I’d be the first to agree that it is reliably and insanely liberal.

And I’m not really talking about KKK types either though I understand they are, by legend, part of the far right.

I guess I shoulda said anti-Israel. Not just the far right but the US military has had an anti-Israel contingent, like Zinni and even Powell it might be argued.

Anti-Zionist is what I shoulda said. We now have a general training Palestinian terrorists who want to drown every Jew in the Mediterranean. That’s, um, anti-Zionist in my book—in addition to being STARK-RAVING INSANE.

Today the US Navy and US Air Force began Standing Down. All weapons systems will be transferred to UN control and command. The US Army and Marine Corps will be transferred to a new Continental United States Internal Security Command to handle any potential domestic unrest.

Oh, give me a break. Should American officers have given up their commissions when we were beating on the Serbs and helping the terrorist KLA? From the little I’ve been able to find browsing the web, it looks like we’re basically training Abbas’ personal security detail to protect him from an attempted assassination by Hamas. In any event it seems the primary objective of this training is to build up Fatah as a credible counter to Hamas. Who knows, internecine Pali warfare might be to Israel’s advantage.

Anti-Zionist is what I shoulda said. We now have a general training Palestinian terrorists who want to drown every Jew in the Mediterranean. Thats, um, anti-Zionist in my bookin addition to being STARK-RAVING INSANE.

So all of you arm chair generals can explain how you can conduct asymmetrical warfare when you don’t have any assets on the ground. This is how it is done people. Arafat was the best damn asset that the United States had on the ground because he was able to be controlled. Hamas and Hezbollah are not controlled by any Nato ally and the closest thing that comes even close is the SGDN. Some of the comments on this board are so damn naive some times it makes me sick

I read recently that applications for all military academies are way up. Not a surprise in this economy, but apps for the Naval Academy are up something like 40%. Why the sudden surge in interest? I just have a sick feeling these might be Americorps sheeple (or comparable) that have been encouraged to infiltrate. Very Scary thought.

If you don’t, I strongly suggest you do your own research and you will see this has been reported a number of times by multiple media.

For example:

From the Berliner Morgenpost:

“Beyond Obama’s timeline, over the past week, two other developments made it apparent that regardless of what Iran does, the Obama administration will not revise its policy of placing its Middle East emphasis on weakening Israel rather than on stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. First, last Friday, Yediot Aharonot reported that at a recent lecture in Washington, US Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton, who is responsible for training Palestinian military forces in Jordan, indicated that if Israel does not surrender Judea and Samaria within two years, the Palestinian forces he and his fellow American officers are now training at a cost of more than $300 million could begin killing Israelis.”

or from CBS News:

Regarding the law of unintended consequences. This “law” may turn out to apply no less to the Palestinian army that U.S. Lieutenant General Keith Dayton has been creating on the West Bank for Fatah. As Robert Dreyfuss recently reported, the general, speaking in Washington, warned that the Palestinian troops he’s training “can only be strung along for just so long.

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